Twelfth Night
by Reid Phantom
Summary: The twins had always known they were half-alien. It was hard not to. "Your mother came from the stars, and you both take after her. You take after her in spirit; and you take after her in body," their father would always say.


**Alicia uses the Euro-Spanish pronunciation (uh-lee-thee-uh)**

* * *

The twins had always known they were half-alien. It was hard not to. Even their names reflected it. Their first names, Alicia and Calista, came from their father's heritage while their middle names, Kyzta and Acxa, came from their mother's.

"Your mother came from the stars, and you both take after her. Alicia, you take after her in spirit; and Calista, you take after her in body," their father would always say.

* * *

They were nine when he died.

Calista had been at home as usual, but Alicia had been in the car with their father since he'd wanted help running errands.

When Alicia woke up, they told him there'd been a crash. He was mostly alright, but their father…

It took Alicia two weeks to sneak away from the family they'd put him with, nearly a month since he'd last seen Calista.

She was terrified when he finally reached her, throwing herself at him the moment he'd shuffled into the hidden panic room in the attic.

"Strangers came to the house," she told him. "I don't think they knew I was here or were looking for me. They just checked some stuff and took some clothes and toys from our room and left. But… I heard them mention something about a funeral, and someone coming to clean out and sell the house, and I thought -"

That's when she broke down crying.

Alicia held her until they both fell asleep. In the morning, they scavenged the house.

Money from their father's office and the jar on the kitchen counter was added to the stash in the panic room. The food was sorted through like their father had taught them. A good portion of the perishables had been either eaten or gone bad over the month, but most of the food was designed to last. They packed up what remained of their clothes, Alicia's stuffed hippo toy, Calista's Lilo doll, and their learning tablets into a suitcase and took it and the first aid kit from the panic room out to the shed. There they strapped the luggage, kit, money stash, and as many bags of food and jugs of water as they could fit onto the secret hoverbike their parents had built.

After that, they waited. They waited for the sun to sink past the horizon. They waited for the lights in the nearby houses to blink out.

Only once the entire street was dark did they sneak down to the shed, GPS in hand. Alicia was the one who knew how to drive the bike, but Calista was the one who could see without needing the headlight. As such, Calista sat in front, directing Alicia through turns and around obstacles while they made their way through rural streets and into open desert. Meanwhile, he kept his eyes glued to the GPS as they grew closer and closer to the coordinates their father had made sure they both memorized.

The sun was rising by the time they reached the shack they had been born in.

They sleepily dragged everything inside before collapsing onto the couch.

* * *

The first few weeks - months, really - were hard.

They fought. A lot. Both physically and verbally.

Calista yelled that he should just leave, sometimes because she was mad and sometimes because she honestly thought he would be better off without her. He wasn't the one that was blue and had crests and pointed ears. He could have a normal life without her.

Alicia yelled that maybe he should, sometimes because he was mad and sometimes because he honestly thought she would be better off without him. He got colder more easily than she did, needed more water than her, and his eyes weren't as good as her own. He couldn't hunt during the day for as long as her or at all at night.

They pushed through though because neither of them could actually push away what little of their tiny family they had left.

Alicia taught Calista how to drive the hoverbike and Calista taught him how to work the water purifier and food scanner their mother had left behind with their father. Together they learned how to cook, the best ways to hunt, how to care for the vegetable garden in the shed, and how to patch up each other after a fight or on the rare occasion they got hurt hunting by watching videos on their tablets.

There was only so much they could get in the desert though.

Three months after they'd come to the shack, Alicia drove the hoverbike to the nearest town. He'd gotten a little lost, but managed to find his way once he'd spotted the road that led from the neighboring asto-military school to the town. He hid the bike under a tarp just outside of town before creeping in to buy what was needed.

It was the first of many trips, although they were infrequent. The two didn't need much.

The only exception was the month of October.

Every October twenty-third, they'd leave the shack the moment the sun set and head to town together. Alicia would buy them both ice cream that they'd eat in a hidden part of the park, then the two would sneak into the discount theater to watch whatever old movie was playing.

Two days later, they'd start the night much the same, but with a small cake and a trip to the observatory instead.

Both days Calista would wear a scarf, hood, and sunglasses to hide her face until they were safely tucked away behind tall bushes or at the back of a dark room.

Their next trip, on the other hand…

Halloween was their favorite day. It always had been. It meant Calista could go outside without having to worry about being seen. It was like an extension of their birthdays, and they treated it as such.

They'd spend the afternoon wandering around town, looking at the decorations. Calista would get compliments on her _costume,_ and Alicia would paint his face blue to match. Later, they'd drift from house to house, bags ready to gather as much candy as they could get their hands on.

* * *

Time passed and the two grew older.

* * *

Alicia was eleven and watching a group of girls giggling from behind a rack of clothes when he realized how different he felt. It wasn't an alien-different, like how he seemed to always know where everyone around him was without looking or how he was heavier than he was _supposed_ to be given his size.

It was a different sort of different.

When he returned to the shack, he and Calista talked.

And talked.

And looked things up on their tablets.

And talked some more.

On his next birthday, Calista gave him the name Keith. It was both an amalgamation of his two names and the first birthday present either of them had gotten since their father had died.

In return, Keith gave her all his Halloween candy.

* * *

Things took a turn for the worst just before their fourteenth birthday.

Keith had always gotten looks when he was in town, but usually a lie about his father being near was enough to turn them away. As he grew older though, the lie worked less and less. To the point where a _friendly_ store clerk tried to "make sure you get back to him safely."

He barely managed to get away.

"They must not expect little kids to be runaways," Calista muttered as she worried over a scratch he'd gotten on his hand jumping over a fence. "But teenagers are exactly what they're expecting."

"I've been going there for years!"

"And they've never once seen our father with you."

It only got worse when their Halloween was cut short by a pair of police officers trying to _talk_ to them. They'd gotten split up while trying to lose their tails. By the time they had been able to meet up at the bike, both were convinced the other had been taken.

They spent the night in each others arms.

"I'm leaving," Calista announced the next morning.

"What are you talking about?"

"The Boat. I'm going to take it and find mom."

The Boat was a small craft their mother had left behind. Their father had told them it was in case of emergency, though they weren't sure exactly what kind of emergency would call for a spaceship.

It wasn't the first time they had considered using it, really. When their father had died, they'd talked about leaving Earth, had even gone so far as to learn how to fly it using the instructions their mother had given their father. They'd decided against it in the end though. They didn't know where to go or how to survive in space. Here they had a home and knew how to survive.

When he reminded her of this, she shook her head. "We can't keep going on like this. You're not as inconspicuous as before. They're going to keep coming after you. If they catch you -"

"Then I'll run away again! I'm not going to leave you alone out here!"

"And what if they put you somewhere you can't run away from this time?" She yelled, jumping to her feet. "Or what if they don't catch you, but follow you instead? What if they find us out here? It won't be foster care then. They'll run tests on us, and we both know you aren't as human as you look! They'll lock us away and-and do who knows what to us!"

"Then I'll stop going into town!" he yelled back, hopping up as well.

"We're not that self-sustaining! And what if one of us gets hurt! Really hurt! We're lucky neither of us has broken a bone or been mauled by a coyote!"

"We know how to set bones and close wounds!"

"First aid!" She shoved him, then grabbed his shoulders and gave him a shake. "We know first aid! We don't have the tools or knowledge to really fix the problem! And what about infections? And the pain? We can't get our hands on the medicine we'd need! We can't even buy cough syrup!"

"I'm not opposed to stealing if I have to!"

"I know you're not, but that could just get us more in trouble! And who knows what kind of dosage we would actually need! We could die!"

Keith opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out.

The silence felt harsh after the yelling.

She let him go. "Keith -"

"What would we even do?" He snarled, burying his hands in his hair. "Where would we go? We don't know anything about what's out there!"

"Actually, I do. I've been thinking about this since the last time you got in trouble. I checked the Boat and it's got navigation. The information is all years out of date, but the more prominent trading hubs are likely still active. They'll be the best places to look for work and information."

"So we just pack up and leave? Do you really think we'll be better off out there?"

Calista reached out and pulled his hands into her own. "Not we, me."

Keith jerked away from her. "What?"

"I'm going. Alone."

Keith stared at her for a moment before tackling her. The two rolled around on the floor before Calista managed to pin him.

"No!"

"Keith -"

"We stick _together!_ That's how we've always done this. It's how we've survived this long," he hissed, getting his foot between them and kicking her off.

"This is different," she huffed, rolling away before he could grab her. "I can't stay here any longer, but you can. We both know the only reason you're out here all alone is because of me." She grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him into a headlock. "You could have a life here. You could go to school and have friends and live in a real house."

"I don't care about any of that stuff."

"I do. You should be able to live your life without me holding you back. There's no telling what could happen out th-Ow!"

Keith managed to get a handful of hair and ear and pulled. The pain made her loosen her grip on him enough for him to slip free.

"Which is why we need to stick together!" he yelled, twisting around her to pin her face down.

"Which is why you're staying here!" she yelled back, trying to pull her arm free from where he was holding it behind her.

"You are not just… just leaving me here!"

"You'll be safe! You can have an actual life!"

"Our life is fine!"

Calista clawed at Keith's cheek, giving him four long scratches and making him pull back enough for her to buck him off. She swung herself on top of him, sitting on his chest. She grabbed his wrists and ignored the knees thumping against her back as she leaned close to his face. "Our life sucks."

"You suck!"

"Keith, be reasonable. I have to leave, but you don't."

Keith went limp. "Fine, just leave me then."

She collapsed on top of him as she saw his eyes growing wet. "You know this isn't about leaving you. We need to be safe, both of us. You can be safe here, I can't. And I can't guarantee you'd be safe out there."

"We can't be sure you'd be safe out there either."

"I have a better chance out there than here though. It's where Mom's from, and Dad always said I look like her. If it's safe out there for her, I shouldn't be in too much danger. Not like here."

"We won't be together though," Keith muttered, running his fingers along her crests.

Nuzzling into his neck, she grabbed onto his shirt. "I know, but it's what's best for both of us."

"I don't like it."

"I know. I don't either." She sat up and pulled him into a hug. "I'll miss you."

Keith buried his face into her shoulder, tightly wrapping his arms around her.

They held the hug for a few moments before Calista pulled back, her eyes as misty as his.

"Come on, let's get cleaned up," she chuckled, gently poking his bleeding cheek.

His nose twisted up and he slapped her hand away. "Why couldn't I have gotten claws too?"

* * *

A month later, the Boat was packed up with Calista's things and most of the nonperishables.

Keith watched her ready the Boat from behind the pilot seat. "There's still time to change plans."

"We're not having this fight again."

"I'm not trying to start a fight. I just… are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"

She sighed and stood up. Tugging him forward, she tucked him under her chin. "I want you to come, but you need to stay here."

He'd lied. He did want to fight, but he knew it wouldn't do any good.

She pulled back and leaned down to press their cheeks together.

"Be careful out there."

"Keep out of trouble here." They held the position for a moment before she pulled back. "I want you to take this."

Keith eyes widened as she held out their mother's blade. "What? No, you should take it! You're the one heading out there!"

"A little knife isn't going to do me much good out there."

"It's a dagger," he huffed.

She rolled her eyes and pushed the blade into his hands. "Besides, you're the one that knows how to use it."

He tried to push it back, saying, "You should have something to protect yourself with."

"I'll figure something out. Mom left it _here_ for us. You should keep it."

"You're the one that's going out there to find her. What if you need it?"

"I know the insignia like the back of my hand."

"But -"

She grabbed his wrist and forced the blade into his hand. "Take it. It should be yours. You're the oldest, even if you are as small as a rabbit."

He punched her arm. "Not my fault I didn't get Mom's giant genes." He glanced down at the blade before strapping it to his belt. He stared down at the ground as they turned to head towards the exit. "Will you ever come back?"

"I don't know."

"Try."

As Keith stepped out, Calista grabbed his shoulder. "Let's make a deal. I promise to come visit you as soon as I know it's safe to do so. In return, you promise to at least _try_ to find a life here." She leaned down until they were nose to nose. "I don't want you spending the rest of your life missing me."

"It won't be the rest of my life if you come back."

"It will if I don't."

"Then come back."

"I don't know if I'll be able to. Like you keep pointing out, we don't know what it's like out there. So just try, for me. And if it's safe to come back, I will. And if you still hate it, you can come with me when I leave again."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

He closed his eyes, then stepped back. "Fine, I'll try."

"Good." She reached out and ruffled his hair.

He hissed and clapped his hands over his head. He glared at her laughter and said, "Aren't you leaving already?"

"Take care."

"You too. And hey," he added, stopping her as she turned. "If you do find Mom, make sure she regrets leaving us."

She smirked, baring her fangs, then headed inside as the door shut.

Keith left the cave the Boat was hidden in and grabbed his bag. Rubbing his eyes, he turned to watch the Boat fly out the entrance and up into the twilight sky before setting off.

* * *

 **I had more for this, some written and even more planned, but I wanted to get this out before s6 can get the chance to either disprove everything or, God willing, confirm something.**


End file.
